Phil Kessel of the Toronto Maple Leafs this year hit the headlines when he defeated a host of poker professionals to win a charity poker event. It then posed questions in the media whether Kessel would potentially venture into the world of professional poker when his hockey career comes to an end.

In his defense, Toronto coach Randy Carlyle was giving the Bruins and coach Claude Julien credit for their ability to get the Zdeno Chara-Phil Kessel matchup on the road almost as well as they do it at home.

But in telling the media Sunday that he thinks Chara might play close to 35 minutes for the Bruins in Game 3 Monday at Air Canada Centre, Carlyle showed he’s not much of a student of recent Bruins history.

As soft-spoken and aloof as he is, it’s hard to believe Phil Kessel hates anything.

So it’s no surprise that although the TD Garden crowd has often broken out chants of “Thank You Kessel” to mock the Toronto Maple Leafs sniper in the years since Kessel’s trade out of Boston, he says he holds no ill will toward the Hub.